


But plans have been made

by phalangine



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, are they together? yes. but also no, is it a miscommunication if they don't communicate?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-09
Updated: 2019-06-09
Packaged: 2020-04-23 08:50:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19147642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phalangine/pseuds/phalangine
Summary: Two snapshots of a relationship that isn't quite a relationship





	But plans have been made

**Author's Note:**

> title from "sparrow and the wolf" by james vincent mcmorrow
> 
> eta: de-anon because i’ve accepted what i’ve become

Davos clenches his jaw when he comes.

He can’t quite smother the moan, but Stannis doesn’t chide him for it. That’s a relief; in the heartbeats that follow getting off, Davos doesn’t want to be aware of everything that’s wrong. It will all come back on its own. He doesn’t want Stannis to bring it back faster.

His knees shake, threatening to give out. He’s too old to be getting fucked against walls, which he’s well aware of, but that’s what happened. It’s the least in the string of questionable decisions he’s been making lately.

The iron grip Stannis has on Davos’ shirt won’t be enough to hold him up if his knees make good on their threat. There’s a metaphor in that, but Davos doesn’t have to acknowledge it.

Behind him, Stannis has fallen still. It’s a kind of tenderness, Davos supposes; Stannis always lets Davos decide what’s enough and what’s too much when he comes. If Davos just wants to jerk himself through it, that’s fine. If he wants to fuck himself on Stannis’ dick, that’s fine, too. Stannis will wait, holding himself rigid and unmoving until Davos has gotten what he needed.

Afterwards, when Stannis has left and the house is back to being too big again and full of thoughts he doesn’t want to have, Davos thinks that sex with Stannis is a bit like using a particularly convincing toy. They don’t kiss. The only skin that touches is what’s necessary. Even when his hands are fisted in Davos’ shirt and holding Davos in place, Stannis has the doesn’t so much as let his knuckles brush Davos’ skin.

It isn’t fair to compare Stannis to Marya. It isn’t.

And yet.

Stannis is a quiet lay; even with his face not far from Davos’ neck, his breathing is forcibly kept quiet. He doesn’t talk. He doesn’t make a single sound that wouldn’t be out of place if they were out jogging.

Even when he comes, he’s completely silent.

He sticks to that pattern today. Davos manages a rough, “Stannis,” and Stannis slowly begins to move his hips again. He’s a good lay, better than anyone thinks, better than he ought to be.

Better than Davos wants him to be. 

If they waited a little longer, Davos could probably get off a second time, but they don’t wait, and it’s safer that way.

He hears Stannis’ breath stop not long after he’s resumed fucking Davos, and he knows that in a few moments, Stannis will pull out and back away. The condom will get tied off and placed in the trash. Stannis will compose himself in the bathroom.

They won’t say goodbye.

Stannis makes it to the bathroom before Davos sighs.

He knows the kind of man he is. He knows the kind of man Stannis is. They aren’t suited to each other on a fundamental level- Davos can’t help wanting to get closer, and Stannis can’t let anyone get close. This arrangement isn’t sustainable for either of them.

Damned if Davos can make himself put an end to it, though.

He’s had a soft spot for Stannis ever since he found his commute home consistently overlapping with a man who was visibly overworked and underfed. Why Davos decided to buy the man a bowl of soup and shove it at him, he can only blame on youth and liquid courage.

Why Stannis actually accepted it, though, remains a mystery.

Why he thought he should return the obviously single-use cardboard container is another, though Davos has a theory about it.

That insistence on returning the container, which became Davos asking what was making a man Stannis’ age so unhappy, is what got Davos his current job- as well as the strange sensation of getting fucked better than he has in a long time but without the comfortable feeling afterwards that’s half the fun.

The door opens as Davos is finally tugging up his boxers.

Stannis waits for him to finish putting himself into something approaching order and turn around.

Aside from a bit of a flush and dampness just at his ever receding hairline, there isn’t anything to suggest Stannis was doing anything other than working.

“I’m nearly finished with the first draft of the Lannister proposal,” he says evenly. “By the time you come down, it should be ready.”

With that, Stannis walks out.

Davos stands still for a long moment, then resigns himself to a quick rubdown with a damp cloth. Stannis’ idea of “nearly finished” just means he hasn’t put a paper clip on the stack of papers, and it’s best not to keep him waiting.

Ever, if possible, but especially after they’ve had sex. He’s always especially testy after sex.

Davos can’t begin to guess at why Stannis keeps pulling him into rooms like this when it makes him so miserable.

 

**xx**

 

There is very little Stannis wants more than he wants Davos.

He doesn’t know what it is about Davos that makes him so compelling. He’s handsome enough with his bright eyes and neat features. He’s well-spoken, especially for a man with so little formal education. He’s passionate as well. Loyal. Dogged, even.

But there are other men with those qualities, and Stannis wasn’t driven to distraction by them the way he is by Davos.

The idea of not touching or speaking beyond what was absolutely necessary had seemed inspired at the time. He’d thought he was merely overly attached because he’d been alone for so long before he met Davos and so insufficient when he was married. If they didn’t touch, then it would be less intimate, more of an exchange between friends, and Stannis would walk away from it with his friendship intact but no longer distracted.

Yet it’s the opposite. Stannis has only grown more distracted at work, and Davos, though he’s still loyal to Stannis, isn’t as warm. He’s too quiet now, at work and everywhere else; Stannis can hear him forcing himself to be quiet when they’re having sex, and the mystery of it- the knowledge that Davos is withholding something from him, something Stannis would be overreaching to ask for- makes Stannis itch. It should be his. Davos should be his- Davos _is_ his, in all the ways except the one that matters here.

He’s tormented by his curiosity about the shape of Davos’ hips and whether they’d fit in Stannis’ palms as well as thinks they would. And how Davos kisses- is he as desperate as Stannis? Does he enjoy it to the point that he spend evenings lost in thought about kissing Stannis instead of working?

How much would he enjoy it if Stannis didn’t fuck him right away and instead took his time making Davos beg for him?

Davos wouldn’t ask for it because he rarely asks for anything, but would he like Stannis to bring him off with his mouth? Does he wake up hard and sweaty because he dreamed about Stannis and all the things Stannis denied them with his rules about never touching?

If Stannis had his way, he’d mark Davos from his legs to his neck.

If Stannis had his way, Davos would live in this house with Stannis, the warmth of his presence softening the shadows of Robert’s slight to Stannis. This abandoned castle could be Davos’ home, as he has more than earned it.

As Stannis wants it to be.

Which is why it cannot be. Stannis doesn’t make exceptions. He doesn’t favor one man over another without cause. Wanting Davos isn’t cause.

The vicious beating of his heart again his ribs can’t dissuade Stannis on this. Davos is loyal, but that doesn’t warrant him a place in Stannis’ home beside him. 

It doesn’t warrant any of what Stannis wants for Davos. Sex with Davos is more than Stannis should have permitted himself; he should have been strong enough to find someone else when he realized Davos wants him the same way Stannis wants Davos. He can’t waver in these other boundaries. He can’t waste time on flights of folly that Davos may not even want. Stannis has his duties to his work and to Davos, and he can’t shirk them by asking for more from Davos than he already has.

It’s enough that they have this. Davos doesn’t want favors; he isn’t that sort of man. And he’s well-liked. People enjoy his company, and plenty of those are interested in him for his body. He may not have his pick of anyone, but he has options other than being Stannis’ companion. He could easily have a life somewhere that suits him better than this drab castle with its unloved king.

Stannis won’t shame either of them by offering Davos things he doesn’t want.

**Author's Note:**

> how did i get here i bailed on got in season 1  
>  ~~it's because their dynamic is my absolute favorite~~
> 
> eta: sorry this is american english; i am but a humble american


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